Tales of the Squire – The New Legacy Deck

Legacy is the kind of format that shifts in the meta from time to time but the decks primarily stay the same. Sure, a certain deck will get a new card like Dredge getting Faithless Looting and such. But overall the decks remain relatively the same or at least have the same idea behind them. I have always been the type of player to love casting creatures and just attacking, but I needed to have interactions as well. I could never play Goblins because I would not enjoy it. I like decks like Maverick because you play awesome creatures but still have a lot of tricks. Well very recently I was browsing The Source and came upon a deck in the pimp thread. The guy posting, Chimera87, had a list that I immediately fell in love with. I messaged Chimera87 to ask some questions and with the answers in hand and some more discussion my deck was built. So here is the list:

Now you may be asking yourself “Why there are two Tundras in the deck when the only thing that could use white is Engineered Explosives?” That is where the sideboard comes into play. Sideboards are always up to the person playing the deck and changes can be made but this sideboard is a little bit different. The whole point of playing the Tundras is for Unburial Rites and Iona, Shield of Emeria. I also played an Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite in my sideboard because I thought she was just as saucy as Iona.

The main reason this deck caught my eye was Gifts Ungiven. I used to play Vintage and I always loved casting Gifts because it just allowed you to do broken things, which this deck can also achieve. Originally the list I found had 1 Innocent Blood and a 3rd Spell Pierce. I decided I wanted another Liliana and a Raven’s Crime because of the synergy with this deck. The great thing about this deck is you can cast Gifts and just cause your opponents problems then. The piles in this deck can be pretty much anything but the one nice little combo is getting Snapcaster Mage, Noxious Revival, and any two cards you want/need. It may take a turn two actually get the card you want due to Revival putting it on top of your deck, but if you have enough mana you can just cast Snapcaster in your upkeep. Some other options for the deck is to Gifts for Worm Harvest, Loam, Raven’s Crime, and a land you need/want. This lets you really start controlling your opponent because you can destroy their hand and get one of your win conditions in the graveyard as well. Also the one way this deck abuses Gifts is by casting it and getting Unburial Rites plus your reanimation target and nothing else. Your opponent must pick the two cards which is exactly what you want. You get to reanimate Iona or Elesh Norn and make your opponent suffer (Maybe suffer is too harsh).

The ways to win with this deck is by controlling enough and getting Jace to ultimate, killing with Worm Harvest (and I suppose Snapcaster), and finally milling your opponent with Drownyard. Now I first had some questions about Drownyard because I thought it would be super slow and while it is, basically you can just get your opponent to concede. Chimera told me that having a card like Factory just lets your opponent use their removal and then setting you back a land. Why not just let them Swords your Snapcaster after you have gotten total use out of it. The deck can just control enough to get your opponent to realize they have no chance at winning.

I got the chance to play this deck at Mythic Games monthly event and was all excited to play. I sat down against my round 1 opponent Karen. I knew Karen was a bit new to Legacy because she started by sitting down and leaving her deck list face up. I noticed an Umezawa’s Jitte and Aven Mindcensor, which meant she was on Maverick or White Hate Bears, which I was fine with either. The first game against Karen she met Maverick’s friend Pernicious Deed. Karen at first wasn’t sure what the card did and my Japanese version did not help her read it. I told her, but I think she forgot as I she placed another creature in front of the Wrath of Deed. Jace and Liliana locked up the board and she picked them up. In game 2 Karen landed an early Thalia and luckily for me passed the turn a couple of times without attacking. I ended up stabilizing at 1 life (I say stabilizing when in fact I should have died) and moved on to the next round.

The following round I faced off against Nic Fit/Veteran Rock and got lucky enough to get use out of his Veteran Explorer getting my two basics. My deck did exactly what it needed to do by killing off his creatures and just controlling his draws. He never really hit and of his “good” spells while I just countered everything. I sided in the Iona plan, mainly because I was giddy about it and figured it could just give me a faster clock. I managed to reanimate Iona naming white and then found out just how much my opponent wanted her dead. My opponent managed to cast Maelstrom Pulse 3 times trying to kill her, but I had Counterspell, Snapcaster Mage, and Force of Will. So I just countered everything he threw my way.

I then saw that I was facing off against Eli who was playing UR Sneak and Show which is a bad matchup for me and I always seem to face it. Eli managed to resolve a Sneak Attack in game 1 and while my only response was to cast Engineered Explosives on 4 and hope he did not have a creature that could kill me. He had the Emrakul and I picked them up. I sided in Hydroblast and Thoughtseize and Eli just had enough counters to counter my Gifts and get a Show and Tell to resolve. I then needed to win in order to top 8. The event was only 5 rounds when it needed to be 6.

I played against Mono White Hate Bears and in game 1 he resolved a Stoneforge Mystic in which I played EE on 2 and ready to take down Stoneforge. He tried tapping down my land so I blew EE in which he cast Phyrexian Revoker naming EE. The following turn I played Pernicious Deed and was going to wait until I had enough mana to blow it up for 3. He of course had another Revoker to name Pernicious Deed and I could not come back from that. Game 2 went much better as in I controlled enough to get the win. He did not really get enough of his hate bears to get there. Game 3 I managed to stabilize at pretty low life and had Raven’s Crime and Worm Harvest ready to get in for the kill. At one point I attacked with Worms and he blocked with Mangara and then bounced it. If I would have remembered to use Raven’s Crime I would have been able to keep Liliana alive which then would have killed his Stoneforge Mystic with her.

Standings went up and I could not make it into the top 8 but I figured it was one round and I wasn’t going anywhere so I would play the deck to try it out some more. I faced off against Reanimator and my deck decided to hate me. I could not draw a 3rd land in game 1 and then I missed 3 land drops in game 2. I did get a chance to cast Thoughtseize in which I saw not very fun things. His hand contained 3 x Force of Will, Show and Tell, Animate Dead, and Sundering Titan. With only two lands in play I had to hope my opponent did not draw land 3 or a reanimate spell so I could survive. He of course drew Exhume getting back Jin and drew his 7. He discarded his Sundering Titan, countered my Maelstrom Pulse, and then cast Animate Dead and I picked them up. I assume he was going to grab Sundering Titan leaving me with no land and no hand.

I ended up 2-3 on the day but I really really like the deck. I am going to make changes, though. I want to cut 1 Nephalia Drownyard to add a 3rd Wasteland and honestly that is the only change in the main. I might add an Ensnaring Bridge in my sideboard because it can control just as well as some of the other cards in my deck but really shuts down Progenitus and Emrakul.

Hopefully you guys enjoy the deck and if you have any questions let me know in the comments or on Twitter @rocketrae21